Now Playing

About thirty seconds into “Digital Graffiti,” the fourth track on Kid Noize’s newly released debut EP KDNZ, a voice says, “I write on a wall: drugs are the key.” It’s just one of many things Kid Noize says he writes on a wall in the song, but I think it’s perhaps the most telling of them all, because in one way or another, someone must have been on a lot of drugs when they were putting together the five tracks that make up this exceptionally unremarkable EP.

KDNZ, available May 13 on Vertigo Records, is the first official release from Kid Noize, the self-dubbed “enigmatic boy with the monkey head” (in reference to a monkey mask Kid Noize wears in public). Most easily described as electro house with some vague techno and brostep tendencies, KDNZ is unfortunately nothing all that exciting. Though Kid Noize says he draws inspiration from synth club music of the ‘80s and ‘90s, his music feels less like influenced creativity and more like misguided attempts at poor imitation. Simply put, there’s just not much enough worth listening to on KDNZ, and what is there is fairly limited and not given nearly enough time to develop.

Part of the problem with KDNZ stems from the exceptionally poor songwriting and arranging. Instead of focusing on the beats and melodies — some of which, when given the room to come through, are actually pretty solid — Kid Noize spends a lot of time pontificating with awkward, meaningless lyrics and hackneyed EDM clichés like random electronic sounds and overly simplified beats being made to appear complex with a barrage of layers of unnecessary musical complication. Though things pick up pretty well about two minutes into “Digital Graffiti,” at three and half minutes total, he’s just wasted a lot of my time with annoying lyrics and bush league electro production. Parts of “Signs” demonstrate a fairly good grasp of what club-goers want in their music, but the parts are few and far between, and even the “good” parts could use some work. “Ode To A Believer,” is the album’s most straight-forward and best track, as it’s really the only one that demonstrates what we’re to believe is Kid Noize’s command of electro house music, but even that has significant room for improvement. Simply put, on a five track EP with only 15 minutes of music total, there is an overly large chunk of nonsense.

What’s unfortunate is that KDNZ feels like, in many ways, a misguided use of focus and energy. Instead of putting his efforts into crafting solid songs, Kid Noize has spent his time on the musical flourishes and gimmicks, perhaps attempting to set himself apart from all the other EDM producers and DJs around today (of which there are certainly more than enough). It seems Kid Noize was trying to run before he could walk, which could be especially damaging on his first EP, the first taste the public has of this guy. Perhaps Kid Noize will come back with another EP or LP and demonstrate more of the talent that were displayed only in short glimmers sparsely scattered throughout KDNZ. In fact, I would very much like that, it’s clear that there some ability here, but for his first offerings, the work just doesn’t quite cut it.